It’s no secret that the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, which killed more than 2,000 Americans, changed the course of history for the United States and the rest of the world.

But it also dramatically altered the identity of the island paradise of Hawaii, changing everyday life for the people who lived there and bringing tourism, one of the islands’ most important industries, to a halt.

Hours after the attack, Hawaii, a U.S. territory at the time, was placed under martial law, and all of the islands’ residents were under the dictatorship of the U.S. military, according to Honolulu Bishop Museum historian DeSoto Brown.

Since Japanese-Americans made up 37 percent of Hawaii’s population, it was impossible for the military to incarcerate all of them, Brown told The Huffington Post. Instead, all residents of Hawaii — white, Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese — were forced to live under strict military rule.

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Photo 12 via Getty Images

The West Virginia and Tennessee battleships are ablaze after the Pearl Harbor attack Dec. 7, 1941.